


Captured

by carolinecrane



Category: Big Wolf on Campus
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-09-30
Updated: 2010-09-30
Packaged: 2017-10-12 08:11:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/122779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carolinecrane/pseuds/carolinecrane
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There's a new picture in Tommy's locker.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Captured

When Merton got to his locker Tommy was already there, humming tunelessly under his breath as he fumbled with something on the inside of his locker door. Merton stopped just short of rolling his eyes at his boyfriend's back; he'd seen the cheerleaders passing out flyers for the big game earlier in the day, and if he knew Tommy he was taping the new flyer over the one from the last game. Merton had no idea why he bothered, especially when they used the same shot practically every time. It was always Tommy close up, his throwing arm poised as though he was about to launch the football into the air. Personally, Merton thought it was an unimaginative pose, but the entire student body seemed to disagree with him.

He tried not to be jealous about all the attention Tommy got from the rest of the school; it wasn't his fault he was the quarterback, after all, and besides, Merton knew how much football meant to Tommy. It was the one time he still got to feel normal, and even if he couldn't understand it Merton didn't really begrudge him the one thing that helped him forget about the wolf for awhile. Well, he tried not to, anyway, and most of the time he was successful.

Besides, what Tommy didn't know didn't hurt him, and as soon as high school was over they wouldn't have football between them anymore. Okay, Merton wasn't really sure _what_ they'd have between them once high school was over, but he tried not to worry about it too much. It all seemed so far away, for one thing, and most of the time he was pretty sure Tommy wasn't going to dump him as soon as they got to college. He'd heard that long-distance relationships were hard, but they'd been through so much together that he couldn't see giving up just because of something like a few miles. Okay, a few thousand miles. But they were best friends, they could handle a little distance.

He shook his head to chase away the depressing thought and glanced at Tommy again, taking a second to admire the way Tommy's shoulders flexed against his t-shirt as he leaned down to tape the corners of the football flyer to his locker door. He had to admit that it was a good picture of Tommy, anyway, and if his boyfriend was a little narcissistic it didn't really hurt anything. He was a teenager, after all, and eventually he'd grow out of it. Most likely next year when he was attending State and there was nobody around to make a big deal about him anymore.

"Hey, Tommy," Merton said, ducking under Tommy's arm to get a glimpse of this week's homage to Pleasantville's Golden Boy. "At least tell me they finally got a different…"

That was as far as he got before his jaw fell open and he found himself shocked into a stunned silence. He blinked, then blinked again to make sure he wasn't seeing things, but when he opened his eyes the second time the picture was still there, hanging right in the center of Tommy's locker door. "That's…"

"Yeah," Tommy said, glancing at Merton long enough to grin before he turned back to the picture. "It's a pretty nice shot, don't you think?"

"But…" Merton paused as his brain short-circuited, then he swallowed hard and tried again. "Tommy," he hissed in a much quieter voice than the one he'd been using a moment ago, "that's _us_."

"Uh huh," Tommy answered without looking up. He turned away from Merton and dropped a roll of tape into his locker, then reached for a stack of books and shoved them into his backpack.

For a long moment Merton just stared at the back of Tommy's head, trying to figure out what exactly he was missing. He had no idea that Tommy even _had_ any pictures of the two of them, and the thought of his very popular boyfriend hanging one in his locker was unthinkable. At least Merton had assumed it was unthinkable until that moment, but judging by Tommy's attitude he didn't think there was anything strange about it at all.

"Tommy," Merton said, ignoring the way his voice broke on the name, "what…what if someone sees that? I mean what about the team? What would they think?"

Tommy took one last look at the picture, then he grinned and swung the locker door shut. "What does it matter what they think?" He paused and looked at Merton, his smile fading when he registered Merton's expression. "What, you think they don't know about us?"

"No, I mean…wait. What?"

"Merton, come on." Tommy laughed and slid an arm around Merton's shoulders, leading him away from the locker and toward the entrance to the school. "Just because they play football doesn't make them morons, you know. They've seen us together, it wasn't that hard for them to figure out what was going on. Besides, it's not like I ever denied it."

Merton was sure that his face was the color of Tommy's letterman jacket, but he couldn't make himself care what he looked like. For months he'd just assumed that the only people in on any of their secrets was them, and now Tommy was telling him the entire football team knew. "You mean you…and they…they just came right out and _asked_? And you told them?"

"Sure, why wouldn't I?" Tommy shrugged and let go of Merton's shoulders, stopping in the center of the hall and letting out a heavy sigh. "You didn't really think we could keep it a secret forever, did you? It's not that big a school, Merton."

"Well no, it's just…" He trailed off miserably as he realized that that's exactly what he'd been hoping. It wasn't that he was ashamed of their relationship, but he'd been hoping to keep it just between them until after graduation. Possibly even after he left the country for college. He'd always assumed that the second the guys at school heard that he was gay that he'd be even more of a target than ever, but if they'd known all this time and they hadn't hassled him… "Wait a second. If the whole team knows how come Tim and Travis haven't turned me into road kill yet?"

"Same reason I'm still on the team. It's senior year, and they all know the only shot they have at winning the state championship is with me as their quarterback. They're not gonna do anything to mess that up."

"Why do I find that less than comforting?" Merton muttered as he stole a quick glance down the nearly deserted hall to make sure that Tim and Travis weren't, in fact, on their way over to finish him off. That was, if he didn't die of embarrassment at the fact that the whole school seemed to know more about his love life than he did.

Another sigh reminded him that Tommy was still standing in front of him, and when he looked up his heart lurched into his throat. Tommy looked so miserable that Merton instantly felt guilty for the way he'd reacted to the news; he wasn't even sure that it bothered him that the whole school evidently knew about them, it was more the fact that he was the last one to find out about it.

"Look, Merton, if the picture bugs you that much I can take it down."

"No," he answered a little too eagerly, but even Tommy's smirks were kind of cute so he didn't really mind that his boyfriend was sort of laughing at him. "It's not…the picture doesn't bother me." And okay, it was sort of a lie, but he'd get used to it eventually. "I was just expecting to see the latest football poster plastered up there, that's all."

"Yeah, well, I don't mind supporting the team and all, but it gets a little old staring at the same picture of yourself every week, you know?" Tommy grinned and slid his arm around Merton's shoulders again as they started down the hall. "Besides, I like that picture. You look really cute in it."

Merton's ears promptly turned the color of Tommy's jacket, but he shifted a little closer to Tommy and hoped he wouldn't notice. "Where'd you find it, anyway? I don't remember anybody taking any pictures of us."

"I found it in the yearbook office. They took the team picture today and one of the guys found it in a drawer. I think he was trying to embarrass me."

"So you stole it?"

"Well it's not like they were gonna use it for the yearbook," Tommy answered, glancing over long enough to smile at Merton's scandalized expression. "They have tons of pictures just lying around, they're not gonna miss one."

He had a point, although Merton wasn't about to admit it out loud. It wasn't like they were going to put a picture of him and Tommy in the yearbook, at least not if it wasn't some kind of twisted joke. Still, it seemed weird that someone had taken a picture of them way back at the beginning of their friendship and they hadn't known about it until now. "That tape's going to make the edges get all yellow, you know."

The hand on his shoulder squeezed slightly and Merton felt a warm rush flood through his extremities. "So I'll steal another one. They probably have the negative lying around someplace, right?"

"I guess so." It would probably be a lot of work to sneak into the yearbook office and find exactly the right negative, but they had to have some kind of coding system. Chances were they had more than one print of each picture filed away, so maybe they wouldn't even have to find the negative at all. Between his access to the radio station after school and the amount of sneaking around they'd had to do in order to keep Pleasantville safe from monsters, one little picture would be no challenge for Tommy at all. "Could you get me one too?"


End file.
